Friday, June 22, 2012

Tim Colebatch: For the first time, most Australians aged 25 to 34 are no longer Christians. Just 49 per cent identified with any Christian denomination - almost half of them Catholics - while 10 per cent declared themselves for Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam or Judaism, 3 per cent professed other beliefs, 29 per cent said they had no religion...

George Megalogenis: Australia is exploding with people and income to the west and the north as the most dramatic census in modern times alters the very idea of who we are as a nation.The resources boom is allowing workers to fly from their homes in Queensland to the mines of Western Australia; the immigration boom is making us more Asian; and Melbourne is on course to replace the stagnant Sydney as our largest city within 20 years...

Shane Wright: Western Australia is the fastest growing State, with nine of the 10 fastest growing local government areas in the country, and West Australians are enjoying the quickest rising family incomes in the nation. The State is also becoming far more cosmopolitan, with huge influxes of people from the Philippines, India and Fiji as well as traditional sources of migrants from Britain, South Africa and New Zealand...

Peter Martin: The census provides an insight into why many Australians feel they are going backwards. The typical household income grew 20 per cent in the five years to the 2011 census. But in the five years before that it climbed 31 per cent. In the five earlier years it climbed 24 per cent. Between-census income growth is its lowest in decades. Inflation is also lower than it has been in decades, making it look as if buying power is holding up. But the really big expenses are soaring. The typical household rent has jumped 49 per cent; the typical household mortgage payment 38 per cent. The mortgage increase is surprising in light of the coincidence that the standard variable mortgage rate stood at 7.80 per cent in both the 2006 and 2011 censuses. The extra payments are the result of extra indebtedness rather than higher rates...
Perth mortgage payments drove up the national total, soaring 54 per cent over five years (while Perth rents soared an extraordinary 78 per cent). Sydney mortgage payments climbed a more sedate 20 per cent, Melbourne payments 35 per cent.

Perth has become a higher-income city than Sydney, boasting a typical household income of $75,868, a touch above Sydney’s $75244 and Melbourne’s $69,316. Darwin and Canberra are by far the highest earning capitals, typically taking in $93,912 and $99,840 per household. Hobart remains in last place with a typical household income of $55,380.

Reflecting the income differences Western Australia’s population grew at the fastest rate in nation, swelling 14 per cent in the five years. Tasmania’s grew 4 per cent.

Western Australia’s East Pilbara was the fastest growing locality, expanding 83 per cent between 2006 and 2011. Almost four in ten residents of the East Pilbra were born overseas, compared to the Australia-wide average of three in ten.

Underline the unusual nature of the regional boom, census executive director Andrew Henderson said Australians typically “associate rural and remote areas with population decline”. The Western Australian trend was “right in the face of that”.

Men make up 76 per cent of the East Pilbra population compared to just below 50 per cent in Australia as a whole. In the 2011 census Western Australia shared with the Northern Territory the unusual distinction of housing more men than women. In every other state women outnumber men.